MDGs - The Millennium Development Goals

In adopting the United Nations Millennium Declaration, the international community committed itself to an ambitious goal: cutting in half the number of people living in absolute poverty by 2015. The Millennium Development Goals, which are based on the declaration, set out specific targets for life expectancy, education, housing, reproductive health, gender equality, openness of trade, and environmental protection.

The MDGs are interrelated, and strategic efforts must push for progress on all targets simultaneously. They remain the starting point, and not the final steps, for eradicating poverty, safeguarding human rights and human security and achieving sustainable development.

UNFPA's work in the fields of reproductive health and rights, women's empowerment and population issues is at the core of the achievement of the MDGs. Poverty cannot and will not be eradicated without also achieving the ICPD goals. Universal access to education and reproductive health care are crucial steps that can help individuals break out of cycles of poverty. Reproductive rights are central to women's empowerment and empowered women are the key to healthier and more productive families, communities and countries. The ICPD committment and the Millennium Development Goals are interlinked and mutually reinforcing.

The MDGs, the ICPD and the Beijing Platform of Action (from the Fourth World Conference on Women) converge in their affirmation of women's human rights, including their reproductive rights, and the recognition that solving the world's most pressing problems demands the full participation and empowerment of women.